Security Council

6763^rd Meeting (AM)

Security Council Elects Dalveer Bhandari of India to International Court

 

of Justice, Acting Concurrently with General Assembly

 

The Security Council, meeting concurrently with but independently from the General Assembly, today elected by secret ballot Dalveer Bhandari of India to fill the vacancy on the International Court of Justice created by the resignation of Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan), on 31 December 2011.

Effective immediately, Mr. Bhandari will serve out the remainder of his predecessor’s term of office until 5 February 2018, in accordance with Article 15 of the Court’s Statute.

Also according to the Statute, relevant articles of which were distributed to the Council through a note by the Secretary-General (document S/2012/211), International Court of Justice judges must be chosen by coordinated actions of both the Council and the General Assembly, with the date of elections determined by the Council.  Eight votes constitute an absolute majority in the Council and no distinction is made between permanent and non-permanent Council members.  By contrast, all 193 Member States in the General Assembly are electors.  Accordingly, for today’s election, 97 votes constituted an absolute majority in the Assembly.

The two candidates for today’s election had been nominated by their national groups.  Their curricula vitae are contained in document A/66/768-S/2012/213. In an 18 April 2012 note verbale (document S/2012/Add.1), Lebanon’s representative had informed the Secretary-General that its national group had decided to withdraw its nomination of Ghaleb Ghanem for election.

Mr. Bhandari graduated in humanities and law from Jodhpur University and obtained a master’s degree in law from Northwestern University.  He has been a judge in the higher Indian judiciary for more than 20 years.  He currently serves as a senior judge in the Supreme Court of India and has been an executive member of the India Chapter of the International Law Association since 1994. 

With Mr. Bhandari’selection, the Court’s present composition is as follows (terms expire on 5 February of the year in parentheses):  Ronny Abraham, France (2018); Mohamed Bennouna, Morocco (2015); Dalveer Bhandari, India (2018); Joan E. Donoghue, United States (2015); Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Brazil (2018); Giorgio Gaja, Italy (2021); Christopher Greenwood, United Kingdom (2018); Kenneth Keith, New Zealand (2015); Hisashi Owada, Japan (2021); Bernardo Sepúlveda-Amor, Mexico (2015); Xue Hanqin, China (2021); Leonid Skotnikov, Russian Federation (2015); Peter Tomka, Slovakia (2021); Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, Somalia (2018); and Julia Sebutinde, Uganda (2021).

The meeting began at 10:15 a.m. and adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

Background

In its 19 January 2012 meeting, the Council had set 27 April 2012 as the date for the election to take place.  (For further background, see Press Release SC/10523.  For General Assembly results, see Press release GA/11230.)

Balloting

The results of the voting were as follows:

Number of ballot papers:	15
Number of invalid ballots:	0
Number of valid ballots:	15
Abstentions:	0
Number of Members voting:	15
Required majority:	8
Number of votes obtained:
Dalveer Bhandari (India)	13
Florentino P. Feliciano (Philippines)	2

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For information media • not an official record